Saturday, January 31, 2009

Dinner time is time to catch up on the day, ie ask probing questions to find out how the school day went. Typical answers include: I just don't remember what we did today. Recess was my favorite part of the day. Nothing was good today. Why can't we watch tv while we eat? etc...

A few nights ago Alison started to sing a song. Let me go off on a small tangent. Alison loves music! She has a cd player in her room with all of the kids cds. She loves to listen to music while she plays. She loves to perform concerts with the music and dress up as whom ever she feels like at that moment. We love to watch her perform. She has my ears though. She just hears different words than are actually being said. Case in point.

Song "Stop in the Name of Love"

Alison: stop in the neighborhood, before you rake my heart

Jennifer: it is stop in the name of love, before you brake my heart (said of course while cracking up)

John: no it is stop in the name of The!

Earlier in the month, John decided to tell us at dinner that he wanted a nickname. He did not understand why he didn't have one. We asked him what he thought his nickname should be.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Is she cute or what! I bought her this fabulous outfit at a boutique in California. We had a girls day on Friday and this is what she wore. She got to bring her money to spend if she wanted something while we were at the store. Our first stop was the corner store to get Mark a drink. I asked her if she wanted to come in a choose a drink for herself. She looked at me and replied, "But not with my money right?" My how quickly they learn!

There have been a lot of babies born in our circle of friends over the past two months. She is enjoying holding them and shaking rattles in their faces to entertain them. This has also brought up many questions about when she was a baby and when Mark and I were babies.

"Mom, who took care of you when you were a baby?""My mom and dad did.""Who took care of dad when he was a baby?""His mom and dad did."A moment of thought and then...."I guess your mom had to fly a lot when you were a baby."A moment of thought on my part and then..."No, I lived in Bakersfield, California when I was a baby with my parents. I did not move to Oregon until I was a grown up."

While shopping in the store Alison announced to me that she was a mom too. "I had a baby today. We have to go to the Doctor's office to pick her up. The Doctor got her and now we get to take her home with us." Wow, if it was only that easy!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Alison was pretending her duck was taking a nap in the upstairs hallway. She had gone around and turned off all of the lights upstairs. John, who had been playing downstairs, decided he needed a Lego from his room. When he found out what she had done for her duck he turned every single light upstairs back on. This was done so he could find a Lego in his room. This was also done by John while Alison was downstairs telling me what she had done. Of course John came down and bragged how he turned them all back on because he thought Ducky should wake up. Alison left to go see the damage. Then John followed to continue to tease/ brag. Then I hear all hell break loose. I go running upstairs to see what is happening and find John crying like crazy because Alison had punched him in the arm. Alison was screaming at John for touching the lights. Needless to say they were both sent to their room to cool off.

I first approached Alison to get her side of the story. Yet all she can scream is "I hate my brother! I want a new brother!" over and over. Obviously, she is in no condition to talk so I turn on some calming music for her and leave the room. I next go into John's room. After hearing his rendition of what went down, I try to explain how they were both wrong. John is just not seeing it my way and can only focus on her punching him. So then I ask what he thinks should be done to solve this problem. His reply, "I think I should punch her because we should do unto others as they do to you!"

I start to crack up and then can't even think of the correct way to say it! Well, at least we know he is listening in church. And we also know that he is not hearing every word they say.

Friday, January 2, 2009

One night while watching television, Mark and I saw a commercial for a collector's plate commemorating Barack Obama as the new President. Mark instantly thought of the two people in his life that would be the most thrilled about receiving such a gift, our fathers. So he decided to order a plate for each of them and have it shipped directly to their homes. Both have received their plates and are thrilled to have this memento to proudly display in their home for the next four years! To show his appreciation my father sent these photos for our viewing pleasure. They included the following captions; "Your Christmas gift has changed my life", "Some things are so desirable they are worth fighting for".